Mythic League - Week 5 Recap
Welcome to the Friend or Foe Mythic Recap. Only four out of the original six matches were played, as Team A-Click forfeited both of their games due to scheduling conflicts.
Game 1: OOD vs POG
Week 5 started off with Team Ooh Deer [OOD] versus Poseidon Gaming [POG]. Both of these teams have long-term veterans, and their experience showed this game. OOD was complimented for their draft, taking a very strict Protect-the-Kog’Maw composition. It’s also important to note that POG fielded Mento in the top lane and Crit Addict in the bot lane.
Just before the four-minute mark, POG Fat Ectomorph started off a 3v2 engage in the bot lane. POG Crit Addict was able to take first blood in the skirmish, but a double-teleport from OOD Bigtwig and Bob Jone neutralized the play by taking a kill back. Moments later, OOD would catch a POG member overextended, giving them another kill. However POG would consistently slap back with a return-kill on the other side.
With three dragons up for Team OOD, POG decided to force a Rell-engage onto Photograph, resulting in an insanely split 40-second-long fight around the dragon pit. POG was able to take down Bob Jone and Bigtwig, but the other half of OOD took down Crit Addict and Mento, leaving OOD Photograph to clean up the rest of the fight. Not only did OOD score five kills to equalize the gold lead, but taking Mountain Soul may have been the nail on the coffin.
Despite ANOTHER Baron steal from POG Bobrovsky, the deciding fight occurred around Elder Dragon. A nice engage from OOD Soximus enhanced by Bob Jone paired with a Seraphine Ultimate immediately removed POG Crit Addict from the equation, and with Antoons keeping Photograph alive for as long as he can, OOD was able to secure the Elder Dragon for themselves while POG had to defend their base.
Finally, at around 32 minutes, a Karma/Lulu-enhanced Volibear engage ended the game, putting OOD in contention for 2nd Seed going into the final weeks of the season.
Game 2: RLS vs SGR
Our second game of the week was Ruby’s Lightup Skechers [RLS] versus SGR Reborn [SGR]. Draft-wise, RLS drafted a fairly standard combo composition with their comfort picks. Most of their bases were covered, which was a huge improvement from RLS’s previous drafts. SGR winning this game would also put them in contention for 2nd Seed along with OOD.
SGR went for a potential five-man catch Level 1, but nothing lost, nothing gained. First blood didn’t occur until about 4 minutes where SGR Hepate went all-in on RLS Ahntye. The exchange went quickly, and Ahntye was almost able to take Hepate down, but SGR DemonLord Nnaoy was able to sweep in just in time to save his top laner in case things went wrong. Tragically, Ahntye would die three more times to the Hepate/Nnaoy combo, pushing RLS’s top-side back further and further.
SGR was able to shrewdly invade the correct parts of RLS’s jungle to continue taking advantage of their top-side pressure. SGR was able to get so many advantage points from their top-side invades that the game was practically over at 15 minutes. From here, SGR was pressuring so much that it felt like the team was practicing their mid-game closeouts or something. Anyways, it was clean.
The final fight occurred at 26 minutes, where SGR Hepate was so strong on Sylas that he was able to swing through RLS, taking every single one of them down. That was, until StreetSmurf stole his Pentakill.
We’ve known StreetSmurf since Season 1, and he’s been great to work with, but we’re a little disappointed.
Game 3: SGR vs POG
Our third game of the week was SGR Reborn [SGR] versus Poseidon Gaming [POG]. Since ACE forfeited their game against OOD, it put SGR one win behind 2nd Seed and put POG one win away from 3rd Seed. Another roster switch occurred for POG this day - Bobrovsky played Ashe Bot Lane and LifeOrbSlowbro played Volibear Jungle.
A simple five-point started the game off. In the bot lane, SGR PR Frozen went for an early Level 1 flash-engage, which didn’t merit to much, except for forcing health potions from both sides. POG Fat Ectomorph traded against SGR’s bot lane exponentially well, putting them at a health advantage despite Frozen’s early aggression. A forced engage by SGR’s bot lane would spell disaster for them, as POG’s bot lane responded more effectively, scoring them the first two kills of the game.
Ganks by POG LifeOrbSlowbro would push their bot-side advantage further, but a few response kills form SGR’s top-side would keep them in the game. Eventually, a solokill in the midlane from SGR StreetSmurf’s Seraphine killing POG Gunsi’s Kassadin would delay Poseidon’s scaling slightly. Two big fights in the mid lane and dragon pit would find both teams in their first 5v5 situations, each of them ending without a clear victor. POG would come out with slightly more kills, but SGR would take a Dragon or a Baron as an exchange.
SGR was, at last, able to take a dragon without a giant fight breaking out. Better yet for them, it was Ocean Soul. POG would defend their base as much as they could, but a few shifts from SGR would allow their lanes to keep pressure up, so they could take one more Baron without contention.
An Ashe Arrow shot by POG forced a potential catch onto SGR DemonLord Nnaoy, but a nice use of Morgana’s Ultimate+Stasis allowed him to delay the fight long enough for the rest of SGR to respond effectively. A final ace, giving SGR Akaipo a triple kill, won SGR the game, keeping them tied for 2nd Seed with OOD.
Game 4: TUB vs HBK
Game 4 of our 5th week featured The Ugly Barnacles [TUB] versus Team H-Block [HBK]. With TUB’s last game against OOD being their first loss in the Season, a win here would give them that extra confidence-check in case any of them are still shook. Meanwhile a win for HBK would prove that they’re a threat moving into the playoffs.
Right off the bat, TUB invaded the top-side tri-brush and took an easy pick onto HBK Bonobo, scoring first blood and removing Zac’s passive early, allowing an opportunity for pressure on HBK’s top side. TUB Rhyre would abuse this pressure immediately, scoring the next kill in the top lane minutes later.
The first big blowout happened near the dragon pit at 7 minutes, where HBK was able take the dragon, but at the expense of TUB Rhyre getting an early Quadrakill on Viego. With such a huge early lead on TUB’s Top Laner and Jungler, it would be mere child’s play for TUB to press their advantage even further in the midgame. Krumpy was able to press for tower pressure by being able to explode anyone stopping him from pushing. The score was 15-5 at 15-minutes.
A beautiful ult-engage by HBK Hayat and Idrees was able to snatch away a dragon. The fight’s opening looked incredible for HBK, but TUB was already nearly 10k gold ahead of them by then. Impeccable kiting and aggressive play from TUB allowed Krumpy and Rhyre to clean up the fight and eventually push for the end in just over 20-minutes.
Game 5: TUB vs OOD
Our fifth game of the week was TUB (8-0) versus OOD (5-3). Everyone seemed to have drafted champions they’re all expected to perform well on. Rhyre’s Viego, Bigtwig’s Vladimir, Wuaton’s Ornn, and Jango’s Lee Sin pick.
A gank in the bot lane seemed possible for Rhyre, but Soximus was there with a nice countergank to give OOD first blood and burning three early flashes from TUB. Because of this, unfortunately for Lamar the Lizard, OOD Photograph and Antoons were able to easily bully out the lane to take a few more slight advantages.
For a little under 10 minutes, OOD was able top push their lead further, but an inevitable four-man gank from Rhyre’s Viego and TheLazyOstrich’s global Galio Ultimate allowed TUB to find a weak spot in OOD’s advantage, giving them an opportunity for a comeback.
In the end, a beautiful TP play by Bigtwig was able to catch TUB as they were chasing down Jango in the side lane. With both teams attempting to catch up to the fight, the nail in the coffin was a three-man sleep from Soximus to allow Photograph to clean up the fight.
Game 6: SGR vs ACE
Our final game covers SGR Reborn versus Team A-Click, where ACE drafted their staple solo-queue style composition with Vambient on Diana, Delete on Nocturne, and Swordblue on Blitzcrank.
The match started off with with a gambit play from Team ACE, positioning Burstlimit (Sion) in the bottom-forward brush. A nice knock-up caught Warplaque and Frozen off-guard, but instead of falling backwards, the duo’s keen sense of awareness pushed them to snatch away the first blood advantage away from Team ACE, making their gambit play worthless and putting Burstlimit behind against his laner.
ACE’s response was to send Swordblue up top lane to steal back the advantage that they lost at Level 1. However, in the end, Hepate and DemonLord Nnaoy were able to cover each of their weak spots and counterattacked effectively.
The game continued to be a bloodbath (like any ACE game). The score was 30-20 before the deciding teamfight occurred, where Frozen was able to land a beautiful four-man stun on ACE after taking down Baron, concluding the game just under 28 minutes.